Grad gives back through annual performance collaboration

The sound of teenage musicians, rehearsing as part of a summer orchestra camp, creeps through the walls of Gaila Raymer’s office in Evans Auditorium.

The air conditioner hums a white noise in the cavernous, cinderblock-walled room. The office of the production manager is home to everything from event posters to random theatrical props to odd pieces of who-knows-what.

There’s also an overstuffed couch, fronted with a cluttered coffee table. This summer afternoon, Wayne Oquin is resting on the couch, wearing a T-shirt and shorts and talking softly about topics ranging from his days of 30-credit-hour semesters to hearing Reverie, his composition for the organ, performed on National Public Radio. Continue reading →

Each year, Flowing Waters places eight Texas State doctoral students in San Marcos schools, where these “resident scientists” encourage students to ask and answer their own questions using the scientific method. Continue reading →

Student’s commitment to education to be fostered by national award

By Mary Kincy

Gabriella Corales

Gabriella Corales will be the first to admit life isn’t always easy. But for Corales, obstacles have proved to be opportunities in disguise, setting her on the path to becoming a mentor for those attending schools with high concentrations of at-risk students.

Texas State theatre major
takes the classroom off-Broadway

The walls of the classroom have widened for Jennifer Foster, a sophomore majoring in musical theatre at Texas State who is set to star in an off-Broadway musical starting next month.

Foster, 21, won a place in the ensemble cast of “Fat Camp” after a New York City audition she rearranged last semester’s finals to attend. She says the ability to participate in the musical without jeopardizing her academic career is part of what makes the musical theatre program at Texas State special.

“At most universities, they don’t have a head of department who is still a professional, working actress and who has been on Broadway and off-Broadway,” Foster says of Kaitlin Hopkins, assistant professor in the Department of Theatre and Dance. “To have Kaitlin is so rare and so special. She knows what we’re going through because she’s been through it.” Continue reading →

Student touts lessons learned in University Ambassador experience

By Mary Kincy

University Ambassador Darius Jones was also a member of the 2011 Texas State Homecoming Royalty.

Darius Jones has learned a lot from Texas State, and he’ll be the first to tell you that: “I’ve learned to think fast on my feet and also to be flexible,” he says. “To be reliable and to be honest with people. It’s taught me patience, too.”

But Jones — at least in this case — isn’t talking about instruction received in the classroom. Rather, he’s referring to lessons learned during his time in service to University Ambassadors, a volunteer organization of student leaders who act as hosts for Texas State. Continue reading →

Noon event to explore the impact
of pregnancy and parenthood

By Mary Kincy

Teen pregnancy and its impact on relationships as observed by a Texas State researcher is the topic of an upcoming Brown Bag Research Seminar.

Chelsea Houska dropped out of her South Dakota high school during her senior year to give birth to a daughter. Thanks to popular MTV reality show “16 and Pregnant” and its spinoff “Teen Mom 2,” she has done so before an audience of millions.

Not every teen who becomes pregnant and gives birth to a child does so in the spotlight, however — and it is with these young women, who begin their journey as mothers in relative anonymity, that Dr. Michelle Toews, an associate professor in the Texas State University’sSchool of Family and Consumer Sciences, works.

Texas State’s Wittliff set to kick off
new season of exhibitions, events

This photo of artist Frida Kahlo by Héctor García is part of a new exhibition at the Wittliff Collections.

A study in faces.

A retrospective focused on early 20th-century Mexico.

A glimpse into a world of myth and mystery.

All are part of the lineup of upcoming exhibitions at The Wittliff Collections at Texas State, a repository of a broad range of archival materials perched at the top of Alkek Library.

The Wittliff is set to open Monday, Jan. 23, with exhibitions featuring journals, correspondence and more of author Rick Riordan; the photography of Hugo Brehme; and portraits by a range of artists. A permanent exhibition featuring costumes, photographs, screenplay drafts and more associated with the production of the hit television miniseries Lonesome Dove — adapted for film by Wittliff Collections founder Bill Wittliff — will continue as well. Continue reading →